A KESSINGLAND man has been fined a total of �215 after he sparked an 11-hour police stand-off and threatened to jump off a Lowestoft roof.

Paul Duell, 38, of High Street, Kessingland was charged with possessing a knife in a public place - two stanley knives - and possession of a class B drug - amphetamine - after the dramatic events of Friday night and Saturday morning.

Appearing at Lowestoft Magistrates Court this morning (Monday), Mr Duell was fined �215 in total for the two offences.

As previously reported, an eyewitness revealed how a crowd tried to encourage the man to jump off the roof of McDonalds, in London Road North, as police tried to talk him down.

Groups of people gathered on Friday night as police spent nearly 11 hours talking down the man.

But as trained police negotiators tried to talk him down, some in the crowd were shouting for him to jump.

Eyewitness Ian Armitage, of Norwich, was in the town for a family event and was shocked at what he saw as he walked to the train station just before 11pm.

Mr Armitage, 28, said: 'There were around 30 people watching on, huddled around the station building. I don't know if they had been out drinking or messing about but some were laughing and pointing.

'When we got to the station we could hear people shouting 'jump off' and 'stop wasting our time, we've been here for ages, do us a favour'.

'I could not believe they were telling him to jump off.

'It is sad really. Whoever it was was obviously in a bad way, so for people to stand around laughing isn't very nice.'

Mr Armitage had previously seen some commotion when he arrived at the town's station at around 7.45pm.

'You couldn't see anybody at first, all we could see was the police who had closed off Bevan Street East and the square in front of McDonalds. Taxi drivers had said he had been up there since 5pm,' he said.

Trained negotiators were soon called in to help talk to the man, who threatened to harm himself if they came too close.

Two had arrived by 6pm and they spoke to the man until midnight, when two other negotiators took over.

Tony Woodward, control room supervisor for Suffolk police, said it was very unusual for the specially trained inspectors and detective inspectors to be called so soon and also for them to be needed for such a long time.

'In most cases we are either standing down as they arrive on scene or it is over within five minutes,' he said.

Hours of talks followed as the negotiators spoke to the man.

By 4am he had been detained in custody – 11 hours after the first call.

'The fire service was on standby, the ambulance was on standby, and it was a very long protracted job very professionally done,' he said.

'There was a safe outcome with no-one harmed in anyway, it was very well done.'